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Happy Endings Essay

Below is an essay on "Happy Endings" from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

2007

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2007

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1. Introduction “Happy Endings” (1983) by Margaret Atwood begins with “John and Mary meet” (63). It is followed by six versions of story, which are alphabetically marked from “A” Reading those stories optionally

to “F,” to provide several different scenarios.

according to the directions in the text (such as “What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A” (63)), each reader can pursuit a happy ending. Nonetheless,

whichever way the reader goes through, he or she gets to the sentences “Eventually they die. This is the ending of this story” (64). After finishing all the versions of the

story, the impersonal narrator says:

You’ll face to it [“they die”], the endings are the same however you slice it. be deluded by any other endings, they’re all fake things…. The only authentic ending is the one provided here:

Don’t

John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.
So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs,

however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it’s the hardest to do anything with. That’s about all that can be said for plots…. (69)

These have led many of the readers to regard “Happy Endings” as a satirical text or a sneer. However, is not it too simplistic? There would be persons who think of death

as a happy ending.

In the first place, the opinion that “Happy Endings” should be a

satirical text or a sneer comes from the view that the ending of the plot is the sentence “Eventually they die.” another place. However, it is not true. The true end of “Happy Endings” is at

2. Criticism and Creation of Other Stories of A Happy Ending “Happy Endings” is one of Atwood’s short fictions, or her flash fictions.
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It is in

her collections of short stories, Murder in the Dark (1983) and Good Bones and Simple